MERCY
by The Girl Who Cried Werewolf
Summary: The Cullens wanted to settle in a quiet town after their almost fight with the Volturi. Aurora Cabot wanted to keep living her regular teenage life with her friends and not worry about a thing. It turned out Ash Haven, New Hampshire had other plans. It had been years since the supernatural creeped through the sleepy town, and the beasts were back with a vengeance. (Jasper/OC)
1. Prologue

ASH HAVEN, NEW HAMPSHIRE. A quaint little town in a quaint little state filled with quaint little people in their quaint storybook houses.

Not even those quaint little people who had lived there their entire lives knew of the darkness that seeped deep within the roots of every tree and tainted the very soil they walked on.

Even she had been fooled into thinking everything was normal in Ash Haven.

_Normal._

She really, _really _missed normal.

Normal people didn't find themselves running through the woods, shoes discarded, blood-matted hair whipping in the wind and getting snagged on branches.

She could hear the beast behind her. They both knew she could never outrun it but it taunted her anyway. That was the problem with these things; they were never taught to not play with their food.

And because the universe decided she could never get a break, her already bleeding foot stepped on a jagged rock that some god somewhere probably placed in that exact spot just for her. She cried out, falling to the ground.

That's how she found herself lying on the forest floor. Her feet burned. Her lungs burned. Her eyes burned from the tears that wouldn't stop. She let them close just so she could see the man whose image had been ingrained on her brain the moment she met him.

She wanted to fight. She wanted to get up and give the beast circling her every last bit of fight in her. But she laid there, thinking of the man with the honey blonde hair with eyes to match. Thinking of the times with him when things were _normal._

Normal. She missed normal.

* * *

**A/N: Hiii, everyone. Bea here. This idea has been in my head for YEARS and here I am finally writing it. ****I really want to use this as a way to try my hand at writing something a little darker than what I would normally do and I hope you love it! The first full chapter should be up in a day or two, and hopefully I will be able to update weekly after that. Please let me know what you think!**


	2. 1:The Beginning of What Might Be the End

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL WAS ALWAYS AURORA'S FAVORITE. School was where she felt comfortable. Her friends, her spot on student council, her cross country team, her teachers were all familiar to her. It helped drive away the loneliness that came with having a mom who had to work nearly every night.

She was strict with her morning routine. Without it her day would be entirely off track. Up at six o'clock sharp. Shower, hair, makeup, outfit, breakfast, brush teeth. Like clockwork she moved through the motions, her stomach bubbling with the excitement of getting to see her friends even though she had seen them only a few days ago.

Her outfit had been hanging on her closet door for weeks now. She pulled on the pair of high-waisted jeans and the light blue off the shoulder top before looking in the mirror leaning against her wall to make sure everything was just right. Satisfied, Aurora left her bedroom and peaked in her mom's room to check on her. She smiled softly at her mom's sleeping form that was still wearing her scrubs and tennis shoes from work the night before.

She glanced at her phone. 7:15. Right on schedule.

Going downstairs, she stopped in the kitchen for a quick piece of toast and fruit and to fill her to go cup with coffee before heading out the door to her car.

Senior freaking year. Class of 2020. Aurora could hardly contain her excitement as she drove to Ash Haven High School. She parked in the spot labeled "STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT" and grabbed her backpack off the passenger seat.

"Rory!"

Aurora looked around the parking lot before her eyes landed on the large group of people congregated in the center. "Morgan!" she said, running over to her friend and hugging her.

Her other friend Amber jumped off the hood of her boyfriend Zeke's car to greet her. "Senior year! Can you believe it?"

Aurora laughed. "As much as I would love to sit here with all of you guys and chat, we have new students and I have to go meet them before the bell rings."

Amber and Morgan both gasped. "Rory, we saw them earlier. You won't believe us when we say they might be the hottest group of people we have ever seen in our entire lives," Morgan said, earning a few protests from the guys in their group.

"I'm sure they are," Aurora said. "But it's almost 7:30 and if I don't hurry I'm going to be late and I still have to give them the tour. I'll see you in second period, okay?" She gave the girls a quick hug, waved at the guys, and made her way to the office doors at the front of the school.

Her heart was almost in her throat. For some reason she was more nervous for today than she had been for the start of any other school year. Her nerves were nearly debilitating. She chalked it up to the fact that never in her eighteen years of living in Ash Haven had they gotten a new student, much less a group of new students. Some tiny voice in the back of her head was whispering to her about how odd the entire thing was, but she ignored it and pushed through the door.

"Good morning, Miss Poe. Do you have my papers?" Aurora said, smiling sweetly at the old woman in front of her.

"Of course, dear. The new students should be standing in the commons area waiting for you." She placed the papers with the schedules of the new students on the desk before leaning toward her. "Just warning you, big family. Odd to see a group like that move to a town like this."

Aurora rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Have a nice day, Miss Poe. I'll stop by before lunch to tell you how things go."

She shuffled through the pile of papers. They had gotten not one, not two, but _eight _new students- all from the same family. Aurora had spent the night before going over the best route she could take them on through the school. She had planned on going by their schedules, but realized that she greatly underestimated how many of them there would be.

Going into the commons area, she froze in her spot when she looked up at the family in front of her. They were _beautiful. _Truly. She could barely wrap her head around how utterly perfect each of them were. Something deep inside her was unsettled by the eight creatures standing before her. It made her stomach churn even more than it was. These people couldn't- shouldn't- be real. It wasn't until one of the siblings- a short girl with bronze hair- had smiled at her did she snap out of whatever trance she was in.

"Um… hey, guys. I'm Aurora. Most people call me Rory, but whichever is cool with you is fine. Principal Allen asked me to give you a tour of the school." She shifted back and forth on her feet, trying to shake the feeling inside her. "Should we start with introductions?"

Her gaze shifted to the left. An extremely tall native boy- no, scratch that. An extremely tall native man gave her a lazy grin. "I'm Jacob Black."

The girl beside him smiled even bigger than she had before. "I'm Renesmee Cullen. You can call me Nessie, though."

And they went down the line, Aurora filing their names and faces away in her mind, hoping that she wouldn't forget. Bella was slightly taller than Renesmee. Edward had the exact same colored hair as Renesmee. Rosalie was tall and blonde and _extremely_ intimidating. Behind her was the absolute tank of a person that was Emmett. Then Alice, who was the shortest of the entire group. She was even shorter than Aurora's 5'1" stature.

Aurora's eyes landed on the last member of the family. If she wasn't awestruck before then she sure as hell was now. The golden haired boy in front of her had to have been a god. There was no other explanation as to how someone could be so beautiful and handsome all at once. He stood at least a foot taller than she, and she could tell he was muscular underneath the neatly pressed long sleeve shirt he wore. Not muscular in the way Emmett and Jacob were, but lean and strong in a way that reminded her of the marble statues of Greek gods she had seen on vacation last year. Everything about him commanded authority. His honey blond hair fell in waves and stopped above the collar of his shirt. The color was nearly identical to his eyes which were trained on her, his gaze powerful. She felt hypnotized. She wanted to stop staring at him, but her eyes had a mind of their own as they trailed over his face, taking in his perfectly straight nose and strong jawline and cheekbones. The only word that came to her mind was _divine. _

"Jasper Hale."

Even his voice was perfect. Smooth and rich like velvet.

A door slammed behind her, making her jump and very rudely ripping her from her thoughts of the golden god in front of her.

"Umm." Aurora cleared her throat, ignoring the fire in her chest and the looks the family was giving her. "We should start with the science wing."

She busied herself with looking at the papers outlining what part of the school each student would be in throughout the day (which was every part; Ash Haven High School wasn't exactly one of those mega high schools you would see in the movies).

They walked through the halls, Aurora pointing out their lockers and classrooms and the fastest ways they could get to each one and trying desperately to not look behind her at Jasper.

"So, what brings you all to Ash Haven?"

Renesemee, who had been following her closely throughout the tour, answered her. "Our adoptive father was offered a job at the local hospital. Our mom loves small towns so he couldn't say no."

Aurora glanced back at Renesmee. "Adopted?"

She gave her another bright smile. "Yes, all of us are."

Aurora gave a hum of recognition, filing the tidbit of information away. She was about to reply but they had reached the cafeteria which was their final stop on the tour.

"Well, that's pretty much it. We're a pretty small school, but we've never had a new student before so I hope I did an okay job at showing you guys where everything was. I have at least one class with almost all of you, so if you need any help you can always ask me." The bell rang then, signaling that school was about to start. Students started to flood the hallways. "Well, I'll see you guys later. I hope you like Ash Haven. We're all super excited to have you here." She gave a small smile and a wave before starting in the direction of the senior lockers. She spared a glance at Jasper, heart thrumming wildly in her chest when they locked eyes.

For the sake of her poor heart, she hoped they didn't have too many classes together.

* * *

They had nearly every class together.

She wasn't really sure what she expected. Their high school was so small that the middle school had been combined with it. With only 45- now 48- people in their senior class, she was bound to see him more than a few times throughout the day.

So she shouldn't have been shocked when she looked up from meticulously arranging her pencils on her desk to see a certain golden haired boy and his twin sister walk through the door of advanced calculus. The chatter of the students faded away as the whole class watched them enter. She made eye contact with him yet again as he walked down the aisle she was sitting in, taking a seat at the back of the classroom. There was a stark difference in his body language this morning versus now in the classroom full of students. His face was guarded and his posture rigid.

Aurora turned in her seat to talk to her friend Ashley about cross country practice after school as an excuse to get another look at him. Unlike all the other times he wasn't looking at her. His eyes were focused on his desk, and his jaw clenched as he listened to his sister whisper heatedly to him.

She wanted to see his eyes again. Wanted to wave and get up and take the seat in front of him and chat about anything she could think of.

She sighed deeply and turned to face the front of the classroom to double check that her supplies were in order. Highlighter, pen, pencil, notebook. All there in a neat line. The bell rang overhead as Mr. Vince walked in the room. It was going to be a long first day.

* * *

**A/N: And here it is! The first chapter. This laid the foundation for a couple different things that are going to happen in the future, even though it may not seem like much. I'm itching to get another chapter out and I have most of chapter 2 written, but sadly my only writing time is when my kid is asleep, which doesn't happen often these days. Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night, because there are still things I want to write in order to get our base plot down. Let me know what you think so far! **


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